Hughes predicts Cottagers win

Fulham defender Aaron Hughes admits he does not know too much about Thursday evening's Europa League opponents NSI Runavik but is not expecting to come out on the wrong end of an upset.

The Cottagers began pre-season last week in preparation for the the first-round tie at Craven Cottage against the team from the Faroe Islands.

"I don't know a great deal about them," Hughes said. "We have not had a chance to look at them too much this week because it has more been about preparation on the football pitch and a little bit of top-up on fitness."

He added: "I guess in the meeting before the game anything that the lads inside have found they will highlight and give us an idea before we go out. It is as much about focusing about what we do and making sure we do all the basic things right, which should be enough to take us through."

Fulham are 1/100 with some bookmakers to win the match, while the visitors are priced by some as 66/1 to spring an upset.

The odds come as no surprise seeing as NSI hail from a town of just 4,000 inhabitants and are made up of part-time players, including a teacher and trainee telephone salesman.

Club captain and star player Christian Hogni Jacobsen has even admitted that Fulham would need to have an "incredibly bad day" for them to have any chance of victory.

The Londoners' expected dominance could go some way to explaining why more than 12,000 tickets have already been sold for the clash - and recently-appointed manager Martin Jol is hoping to entertain those that turn out.

"I do not want to concede too many goals and play attractive football because that is what our supporters want," he said of the approach he is bringing to the club.

"That is probably the same at Spurs. You have a kind of culture and style that you play for the crowds and that is what we try to do here."

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